As I closely recall, "Fallout 3" had an enemy species of mutated ants collectively called "Giant Ant". I have had my fair share of gameplay but never fully completed the game (I am currently in the process of doing so thanks to Backwards Compatibility) -- Sadly, I do not think I will complete "Fallout 3" anytime soon due to, ya' know, "Fallout 4" lol and school. They were all so unique, especially the fire spitting ones -- They were interesting.

Was there some kind of quest related in "Fallout 3" that made you wipeout the whole species? Is there some kind of lore I haven't read that describes how they didn't get affected in the Boston area? Or did they just never get coded in? If any of you have any solutions or theories as to why the "Giant Ant" is not in "Fallout 4" please post a comment and share your thoughts. I would love to read them.

Thanks!!

It was supposed to take a large number of generations for the for the size reduction to work, but then again, I have no idea if the doctor working on was eventually killed off (as in after the events of the game) or if the ants developed an incredibly long generational lifespan....

All the same, I think it's the fire-breathing part that ended with the doctor's experiment, but I could be wrong.

I'd go with that. Probably thought they did enough, time constraints I dunno. No centaurs either, but you get new ones like the bloodbug and super mutants dogs.

There was a quest in FO3 but I'm fairly sure (it's been a while) it was just to reduce their size and/or remove the fire breathing ants, not wipe them out.

They're just... not in the game. I don't think there's a stated reason.

But... But...

Was the Fire Queen Ant part of the reproducing problem as well? I don't remember. Either way, if you killed it or not it wouldn't explain their exclusion so I'm sure they were left out on purpose. "Those!" was a cool quest though. I remember missing out on the doctor's lab coat and the extra SPECIAL point my first go around.

I remember that quest, it was the most entertaining quest in the whole game in my opinion. (But who am I to make such an opinion, I haven't even beaten the game)

The fire ant strain was dr leskos mistake in trying to find a way to shrink. The fire ant line should have frenzied and died. Perhaps lesko made a breakthrough, and they were able to aerosol treat the northern seaboard.

This is of course based on no in game evidence.


Or perhaps the bloodbugs and stingwings are just too much of a threat, and and the marshy land is too soft for ant colonies.

Also based on nothing.


But at the end of the day, they don't really have to be there, even if an explanation would be nice.

They don't come to commonwealth because of the annoying huge mosquitos, flies, and dragonflies

True, but there were ants that were able to spit fire.

maybe dlc

Last time this came up, someone suggested that perhaps the *specific* species of pre-war ant that became the "giant" ant simply didn't/doesn't live this far north, their habitat doesn't extend much farther than The Capital Wasteland.

Seems legit to me, same reason there's no Cazadors (thank Akatosh).

Well, I think the Giant Ants all went to New Vegas on vacation, and now they don't want to leave until they can afford clothes...

Hmm - you would need to know a bit of the background on this...

What is not well known: In one of the bombs they dropped on the Commonwealth area they forgot an anti ant spray, and as this bomb exploded the contents of the spray were spread out over the entire Commonwealth. So all the ants were killed before they could mutate - tragic, isn't it?

The Giant Ants of the Commonwealth were hunted to extinction.


By the Giant Tunneling Radspider.

I think they live in the dry western part of the country.

The big blue bug all but erraticated the ants and those that survived the blue bugs wrath ran off south towards DC.

Giant anteater. Which then died off from not having anything left to eat.

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(My guess is that, with so much space being taken up by the settlement feature, along with other things they wanted like the ocean & the glowing sea, they didn't really have space for "ant colony" locations - the ants really need hills/nests/tunnels to be represented well. Plus, the "burrow underground" mechanic was well-represented by both the molerats and the scorpions.)

Or, the ants mutated and are really raiders. They tend to live in small colonies that kill/eat anyone that gets to close.. They spawn like rabbits, so every time you clear an infestation they reappear a few days later...

yeah like scorpions... oh wait

i'm pretty sure mutated ants would become BoS ,-)

edit: another species that seems to have vanished, but not to be missed by anybody for good reasons are the centaur (if i remember the name right)

mirelurks ate them all

Don't think it would make sense to have giant ants on the east coast, just as it didn't make sense to have Gecko's in FO3, altho ants shouldn't make sense there either, oh well. We got some other new enemies instead, and that is fine by me. Don't miss ants anyways, pretty boring enemy in my view.

It would have been an entirely different thing if giant ants attacked like army ants, eh? Thousands at a time! I wonder what kind of damage that would do to a settlement?

Hehe, yeah. Only swarm like enemy so far, is ghouls, and they aren't swarms, more like packs. At least explosives and Molotov's would be great against an army of ants